Diary of a Teenage Superhero (Teenage Superheroes 1)

A teenager wakes up in a seedy hotel room. He has no memory of his name or his past. A man lies dying on the floor next to him. Someone starts pounding at the door.

He runs. He is chased.

While staying one step ahead of his pursuers, he begins to assemble the pieces of his life. His name is Axel. He is the victim of an amazing experiment – he has been given incredible powers – and he is not alone.

An organisation known only as The Agency has also modified other teenagers. Brodie is a master of the martial arts. Ebony can transmute one substance into another. Dan controls metals with his mind. Chad creates fire and ice from nothing.

They have been handed incredible powers to help the human race in times of crisis – and one of those times is now.

A terrorist organisation known as Typhoid has acquired Pegasus – a highly advanced missile, invisible to radar and conventional defence systems. They intend to fire it at an American city. Only this bunch of untried, untested teenage superheroes stands any chance of stopping the missile before it strikes its target.

Diary of a Teenage Superhero is a high octane thriller showing what happens when conventional teenagers with everyday problems are given powers beyond this world.

They have to learn to work together, but as Axel draws closer to his newfound friends, he remembers the words of the dying man in the hotel room.

Trust no-one.

He knows he can’t trust The Agency.

Can he even trust his newfound friends?

Diary of a Teenage Superhero (Teen Superheroes 1) reminds me of the UK television show Misfits. If you’ve never seen it check it out on by clicking the link, it’s on Hulu.

I like this story of teenage superheroes; they’re X-Men lite. Having them waking up with amnesia keeps from needing to dredge backstory for each character. That’s something, I find, that usually bogs down introductory novels.

For me it was an intense read because I was always expecting on of the lost heroes to betray the others which is the usual trope. Although the betrayer isn’t surprising, I’m not sure if the can really discount this character as defeated. Especially if he’s even half as bad as Dr. Ravana, this dude survived fire.

I also like how it setup the next novel but left everything noncommittal. As much as I didn’t like ‘The Agency’, they felt pervy, and I would have never trusted them. They did make them a team. That seems to on the step of becoming self-sustaining.

They transitioned from being X-Men into Avengers and I hope in the coming books they transition into the Justice League. That previous statement may only be understood by serious comic book fans but each group has subtle differences that make them distinct so I’m going to try and explain.

The X-Men are a ragtag group of teenagers that are trained and housed at a school they fight for justice and equality without government sanctions. The Avengers are a government sanction group of superheroes. The Justice League are superheroes with no affiliations, they fight for justice and stop evil at every turn.

I think it’s going to be interesting to see what Darrell Pitt does with this world. He setup stronger character with strength that haven’t quite figured out how to work together successfully. They barely managed to escape their boss battle. So they can only go up from here.